Saturday, May 23, 2009

Italian to English - 003

This time we learn about Anthony and Bruno's school, and their friend Christine and her friend Jennifer.


Antonio frequenta l'ultimo anno del liceo classico. Le sue materie preferite sono latino, scienze e inglese. I professori sono bravi, ma molto esigenti. Interrogano gli studenti ogni giorno e assegnano molti compiti.


Anthony frequents the last year of high school. The material that he prefers is Latin, Science and English. The professors are good, but very demanding. They interogate the students every day and assign a lot of homework.


Antonio e un bravo studente; ogni giorno studia molte ore con il suo amico Bruno. Entrambi prendono sempre buoni voti. Quest'anno hanno il difficile esame di maturita. Dopo il liceo i due ragazzi desiderano studiare medicina per curare i bambini ammalati.


Anthony is a good student; every day he studies many hours with his friend Bruno. Both of them always get good grades. This year they have the difficult final exam. After school the two friends would like to study medicine to treat sick children.


La sera, quando sono stanchi di studiare, Antonio e Bruno incontrano Christine e la sua amica Jennifer al bar Tre Scalini in piazza Navona. Insieme bevono un caffe e parlano italiano e inglese.


In the evening, when they are tired of studying, Anthony and Bruno meet Christine and her friend Jennifer at the Tre Scalini bar in the piazza Navona. Together they drink a coffee and speak Italian and English.


Qualche volta vanno a giocare a biliardo e a calcetto in un centro giovanile o guardano una partita di pallacanestro alla televisione.


Some time they go and to play billiards and table football in the youth center or they watch a game of basketball on the television.


Friday, May 15, 2009

Italian to English - 002

In the second installment we learn more about Anthony and Christine’s schools.

Antonio è gentile e simpatico.  Christine è carina e allegra.  A scuola di Antonio ci sono molti studenti.  Alcuni sono italiani, altri di diverse nazionalità: marocchini, albanesi e polacchi.  La scuola di Antonio è nuova, bella e grande.  La scuola di Christine è piccola.  Ci sono solo studenti americani.

Anthony is kind and nice.  Christine is pretty and cheerful.  At Anthony’s school there are many students.  Some are Italian, others are of diverse nationalities: Moroccan, Albanian, and Polish.  Antony’s school is new, beautiful and big.  Christine’s school is small.  There are only American students.




Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Italian to English - 001

This is the first installment of the Italian to English translation blog.  The first paragraph is in Italian and the second paragraph is the English translation.  Here we go…

Antonio e Christine sono amici.  Antonio è un ragazzo italiano: è di Roma.  Il suo cognome è Ciampi.  Christine è una ragazza Americana: è di Lancaster, una piccola città della Pennsylvania.  È in Italia con la sua famiglia.  Il suo cognome è Smith.

Tony and Christine are friends.  Tony is an Italian boy: he is from Rome.  His last name is Ciampi.  Christine is an American girl: she is from Lancaster, a small city of Pennsylvania.  She is in Italy with her family.  Her last name is Smith.



Tuesday, May 12, 2009

A new idea

I finally came up with a unique idea for a blog and ultimately an RSS feed.  I know many people who don't use a web client to view blogs, but simply pull up google reader or a similar tool to read their favorite blogs over RSS.  My idea is not that unique, but an expansion of an existing idea.  We have all seen the "word of the day" feeds in a variety of languages.  I am thinking about publishing a semi regular RSS feed that translates mini conversations into Italian.  Why you say?  On those "word of the day" sites you get to see a word used in one sentence, but that is it.  It is the same in non-English languages.  Yes, I'll admit that I am using this as a self teaching tool for myself too, but I do think that if there was more than just one sentence, it would be easier to learn the language.  This may turn into another idea that fizzles out, but I'm up for trying it if you are.